Chapter 616: Coffin

The ancient vampire held his throat, trying to say something but unable to make any sound. Black blood spurted out of his mouth nonstop, and his fair and smooth skin dried as if it were burnt. His crimson eyes were gradually frozen, with regret lingering on, before he collapsed on the ground.

"A Master of Transformation's blood is the last you try to suck. Tsk." Klaus clicked his tongue, as if he were sorry for the intellect of this ancient vampire.

Lucien chuckled. "In fact, the Master of Transformation's blood is the best. If you suck one of them, you will be essentially sucking countess races. But he shouldn't have sucked Erica's blood when she became a seraph. He must've been desperate about his life."

"Are you two comedians?" Erica took her handkerchief back and glared at them. Then she said to Douglas, "Mr. President, I suddenly felt a space-time change when I observed the bookshelf just now, and then I entered this chamber and met this vampire. I was worried that he might expose us, but he seemed to be too passionate about my blood, so I simply changed my blood accordingly."

That was exactly 'Local Transformation'.

"A space-time change..." Douglas repeated. "We didn't notice it at all in the beginning. It seems that the Temple of Spirits is truly part of the projection of the mysterious existence of the World of Souls. That's why the legendary spectres could fool our senses. In the next, we need to be more cautious. Consider our enemy as a demigod!"

Vicente nodded and looked at the body of the vampire. "He seemed to be one of the intelligent legendary spectres, but why was he so stupid? The real vampires are all intelligently capable despite their egotism."

"That's normal. The ancient vampires were created by Silver Moon Alterna, and the other vampires were transformed through the embrace. They absolutely obey Silver Moon and shouldn't work for the World of Souls at all." Lucien looked at his left hand. When he met the ancient vampire just now, it showed no reaction at all.

Fernando stepped forward and examined the body with magic. "Then, it's possible that the vampire was synthesized by the mysterious existence of the World of Souls in other ways..."

"In what ways?" Douglas also stepped close and began his investigation.

The Lord of the Undead and Klaus followed them, touching the skin of ancient vampire that was still partly intact.

"The skin is smooth, elastic, with blood running slowly downwards. The most intense vigor can be felt, but there's no power of the Silver Moon." The Lord of the Undead rubbed the skin like a pervert and observed enthusiastically.

Klaus jabbed the flesh. "Perhaps his intellect was compromised exactly because he was synthesized. He did not know the simple lesson that not all food is edible. Was his soul created or melted?"

'Melting' was exactly the way to create alchemical life right now. Many relevant pieces of the soul were used for the combination.

"You do have a point. The vampires like Mr. Rhine would've controlled the enemy first, prepared food and wine, and examined the food carefully, before they enjoyed the dinner." Lucien also walked close.

"Hey, enough!" Erica rubbed his wound that was healing quickly and said angrily, "This is not the time for arcana studies and discussions!"

Huh? The research maniacs finally realized that there were more important things to do.

Seeing that they backed off, Erica smiled, "Besides, this is my trophy. I don't need to tell you how important the dead body of an ancient vampire is to a Master of Transformation, right?"

Furthermore, after she lived half of her life, she could hold a magic ritual with the essence of the vampire's blood to extend her longevity.

The crimson fire in the Lord of the Undead's eyes bounced. It was true that Erica took him down on her own. Although she was only one level above the ancient empire, she killed him more than easily because of the guy's lust for blood.

Why can't I ever meet such a stupid vampire?

"Let's move on." Watching Erica collect the vampire's body, the Lord of the Undead said eagerly, as if he couldn't wait to meet a similar moron.

After they returned to the library from the secret chamber, Lucien and the rest of them carried out all their alert spells in case of another accident.

Without triggering the alarms in the library, the six of them passed thousands of bookshelves and left the palace from the other side.

Behind the palace was a peaceful lake, which was connected to the steepled palace by a black bridge.

Being in the World of Souls, the lake was, undoubtedly, grey and dead. It reflected the coldness around and did not have the slightest waves, making everybody uncomfortable.

"It's not the Lake of Ghosts but has a weird feeling." As one of the best experts of the school of necromancy, the Lord of the Undead identified the differences.

Douglas and Fernando also nodded. "It's like devilized ghosts, similar to Apsis on the Skeleton Land."

Apsis was the master of the Skeleton Land, the Life Reaper and the Lord of Death. He was a level-three legendary Demon Lord who was once locked and sealed by the Grand Cross.

The team was not delayed by their discussion. They stepped on the bridge quickly.

Then, the lake water suddenly surged. Countless pairs of red eyes stared at the bridge. Whoever stared back at them would lose their vitality and soon become undead creatures.

On the bridge, grey hands groped for Lucien and his teammates who were stepped forward. Those hands were thick, colorless, puffy and gross.

But before they reached Lucien's feet, they were already mutating under the green light and had countless more fingers, which made them look like the tentacles of a kraken.

Those hands were stuck together as a result, blocking the red eyes below them.

Lucien was rather surprised at the result. He intended to destroy the curse with 'Professor's Solicitude', but the mutation turned out to be exceptional. It must be noted that 'Professor's Solicitude' could only cause slight mutation after a long time under normal circumstances.

Feeling the urge of research, Lucien blew apart the mutated grey hands and pluck a dozen that were still normal. Wrapping them up, he tossed them into his storage bag.

Blackness appeared next to Douglas' feet, deviating both the grey hands and the crimson eyes. Those who reached Fernando were faced with a dark storm. Klaus' feet turned into the feet of a puppet at some point, which were absolutely steady when the grey hands scratched them. Erica, on the other hand, had the palest face without the slightest vitality. She had turned into a legendary spectre at some point and was grimacing back at the crimson eyes down below. Come on. I'm already an undead creature. How can you transform me?

Hehe. Vicente snorted. The red flames in his eyes bounced, spreading out vague deterrence that froze all the grey hands and the crimson eyes.

"This should be a trap that is designed against the living people. The undead creatures can pass without being influenced at all, but the non-spectres will definitely be discovered regardless of their strength." The Lord of the Undead said in a low voice. The many traps in the Temple of Spirits were a major eye-opener for him. He had never seen such arrangements before.

In the meantime, Erica cast a spell and transformed the team into corresponding undead creatures. They passed the bridge and arrived at the gate of the temple quickly.

The incident did not last long. The Lake of Evil only roiled for a while before it became normal. It did not catch any attention.

......

The black gate of the steepled palace had uncanny symbols painted on it. They seemed to be representing the sun, or the pale eyeballs.

Douglas performed magic and let his left eye fly out, melting into the grey air and investigating on behalf of him.

They were closer and closer to the Furnace of Souls, and it was easier and easier for them to be discovered!

The left eye snuck into the palace sticking to the ground. Lucien and the team observed everything inside the palace through the picture on the crystal ball while they stayed on alert.

The palace was dark at first, but as the eye moved forward, there was gradually light. However, the light was pale and did not have any temperature.

Then, everything was illuminated. Lucien and the team saw the center of the palace. A pure skeleton in a magic robe seemed to be holding a certain ritual, with a silver cup of red blood on its left side and a creepily-smiling puppet that was enveloped by red spider threads on its left side. There was nothing before him.

"The Lich King." Lucien recognized the spectre whose head was surrounded by special gems!

He was a level-three legendary spectre, and the master of the peripheral area of the Temple of Spirits.

Hardly had he made the observation in the telepathic bond when the Lich King suddenly raised his head and looked at the eye.

"Not good!"

"We've been exposed!"

Similar ideas occurred to Lucien and his partners. Douglas simply cast the spell:

"Advanced Time Stop!"

Crack. The silver cup fell to the ground, the blood was vaporized, and the red spider threads on the puppet were all broken. Countless cracks appeared on the puppet, too. A cluster of flickering light surfaced before the Lich King and was shattered into pieces.

However, they also disrupted the time and space and offset the Advanced Time Stop!

Fernando, Vicente, Lucien and Klaus, in the meantime, surrounded him from different directions.

All the gems on the Lich King's head were illuminated. He became transparent and disappeared, but there was not the slightest wave caused by teleportation!

"What happened?" Erica was confused. How could the guy have escaped so easily right under our noses?

Douglas looked around. "He hasn't escaped yet; he's still hiding somewhere in this palace."

"Yes." Lucien agreed with him.

They were the authorities in time and space.

Therefore, the few sorcerers blocked the two gates and began to search carefully, while they tried to sense any waves of messaging.

Soon enough, Lucien discovered a secret door. Above the door was a vertical symbol that looked like a sword.

After checking it, Douglas opened the door and revealed a rather spacious chamber. The chamber seemed to be even brighter than outside.

The chamber was vacant save five black coffins. There were two flat coffins on the left and on the right, in the way they were usually put, but ahead of them was a dark red coffin that had been lifted vertically, as if the master of the coffin wanted to stand forever.

None of the five coffins were longer than the height of a regular person, particularly the vertical one ahead, which was obviously no more than two meters long. In the eyes of Lucien who was wearing the Sun's Corona, a cluster of sacred, intangible light was floating before or above each of them. Every cluster of light was connected to three similar flickering lines. One of the lines was extended from the void down below, one extended into the void above, and the last one dug into each coffin.

"Godhood?" Lucien was not surprised to see that.

"Is he hiding in the coffin?" Asked Klaus in confusion.

Douglas suddenly said solemnly, "Look at the floor, the wall and the ceiling."

Focusing his attention, Lucien saw vintage crosses through the black and grey dust!

The crosses in the style of the War of Dawn!

Based on their pattern, similar stripes could be found on the five coffins, too!

Dum! Dum! Dum

Dum! Dum! Dum

Lucien's heart was suddenly pounding.